Blood center all atwitter over attracting donors with social media

Updated 10:00 pm, Sunday, August 30, 2009

A sign welcomes blood donors to the Puget Sound Blood Center on Thursday in Bellevue. Donors are being recruited via social media sites as part of a new method to bring people into the center.

A sign welcomes blood donors to the Puget Sound Blood Center on Thursday in Bellevue. Donors are being recruited via social media sites as part of a new method to bring people into the center.

Photo: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com

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Phlebotomist Gillian Seiy draws blood from Joe Kennedy at the Puget Sound Blood Center on Thursday in Bellevue. Donors such as Kennedy are being recruited via social media sites as part of a new method to bring people into the center. less

Phlebotomist Gillian Seiy draws blood from Joe Kennedy at the Puget Sound Blood Center on Thursday in Bellevue. Donors such as Kennedy are being recruited via social media sites as part of a new method to bring ... more

Photo: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com

Blood center all atwitter over attracting donors with social media

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Find out on Twitter, sign up on Facebook and show up in person.

That's the mantra for Puget Sound Blood Center's new social media campaign, designed to recruit blood donors where they spend most of their time -- online.

On Thursday, seven people donated at Tweet-up Blood Drive 2.0, the center's second blood drive organized entirely through social networking media.

"Social media is not about people being cooped up inside," said Sean DeButts, social media coordinator for the blood center. "It facilitates real life action, and that includes blood donation."

The online campaign launched earlier this summer, and already the blood center has about 400 fans on Facebook and 1,200 followers on Twitter.

And the blood center has a YouTube site for its online generation donators/

"This is just one more way to reach people," said Michael Young, the blood center's communications director. "This is the way people are communicating today, and it's the way people will be communicating in the future."

Joe Kennedy, an entrepreneur from Bellevue who donated during Thursday's tweet-up blood drive, used social media every step of the way. He signed up for the blood drive on Facebook, put an update on Twitter as he went to donate and shot a YouTube video as he gave blood.

"Social media is not a scene," Kennedy said, using his hands to put air-quotes around the word "scene." "It's a way of life."

Kennedy said it was "very unlikely" that he would have donated if the blood center hadn't approached him on Twitter.

Wong gave blood for the first time in July and credits the blood center's social media accounts for giving him the idea. Now, he tries to spread the word by copying the blood center's posts onto his own online profiles.

The blood center needs 900 donations every day to manage blood supplies for hospitals throughout the Northwest. "It's a bit of a numbers game," said Jeff Shuey, a technology consultant and blood donor.

Shuey, who has about 6,000 followers on Twitter, and Wong, who has about 400, say they inspiring just 10 percent of their followers to try to donate blood would make a big difference.

The "numbers game" was threatened during last month's heat wave, when Type O supplies dropped to critical levels as blood drives scheduled for un-air conditioned venues were canceled.

Blood center officials relied on social media to find new donors to combat the shortage. "Social media is viral," Shuey said. "You can get the word out faster to a much broader audience, to people who may not have thought about (giving blood) before."

During the week-long heat wave, the number of people interacting with the blood center on social media doubled, DeButts said. So many people used their online profiles to get the word out about the shortage that DeButts created a separate Twitter account just to thank them.

"They take the initiative because we've given them the tools," Young said about the blood center's online followers. "You don't find a better group of people. To be a blood donor, you have to be a fairly altruistic person in the first place."

From 5 to 33 percent of donors at blood drives over the last three months said they scheduled their appointments because of social media, and DeButts said he expects that number to skyrocket as school starts up and students organize drives through Facebook.

"This will evolve as we evolve," said Young. "And the great thing is, we don't know what's next."